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Todd Dills

Power to win: Do you have it?

We know Sugar Ray Leonard’s got it. He delivered a “Power to Win!” keynote (pictured) to the 2011 VIPAR Heavy Duty Annual Business Conference, held in October in Tuscon.

The network of parts distributors benefited well from Sugar Ray’s message, which drew parallels between the stores of various qualities it takes to run a successful business and those that gave him the strength to come out of retirement to take on Thomas Hearns in that late-80s “War” rematch, fighting to a 12-round draw, and ultimately achieve a 36-3-1 professional record with world titles in the welterweight, junior middleweight, super middleweight, and light heavyweight divisions.

Those qualities? “Discipline, focus, determination, preparation, the right attitude and setting fear of the unknown aside,” he said. ‘

Not exactly earth-shattering news, of course, but the last one in particular you might take into account given the economy of the last several years. Successful operators I’ve been talking to researching a January Overdrive story upcoming (you can expect it to cover high-revenue hauling possibilities broadly) have succeeding due in large part to moves in recent history into uncharted territory, shifting their operations to take advantage of new opportunities.

A couple good punches in the right areas, in the end, could well pay off for you.

Todd Dills

Todd Dills is Senior Editor of Overdrive magazine and writes from Nashville, Tenn. He frequently covers business, regulatory and lifestyle topics for the magazine and at OverdriveOnline.com. His work on the “CSA’s Data Trail” series in Overdrive about the federal CSA program was awarded the highest honor in trade journalism – the “Grand Neal” – by American Business Media at the 2014 Jesse H. Neal Awards. Dills’ Channel 19 blog covers a grab bag of on-highway hearsay, owner-operator news and driver views from the roadways the nation over. His work in trucking journalism builds on a background of news feature, fiction and other creative writing and editing. Find him here at the Channel 19 blog and via his Twitter feed, or send tips to tdills@randallreilly.com or via phone at 205-907-2481.